TWTWTW: Catch up, Cat, Carriages

Woe

Oooh, all went a bit quiet there, didn't it?  Not to worry, chaps, I didn't decide to run off to the Good Food Show like Nellie the Elephant packing her bags for the circus.  But I have been busy working towards an exam.  And by working towards, of course I mean panicking a lot and shuffling all my bits of paper into piles rather than doing any proper revision.

If anyone out there has some good revision tips then PLEASE share.  I seem to lack the ability to do it properly and just floof about.  Meanwhile, the cat delights in positioning herself in the most awkward place possible.

Joy

The Good Food show itself was great fun.  It was so heartening to see the number of fantastic local suppliers who turned out and plied us with goodies.  Among my take-home haul were several bottles of gin by exciting new distillers and a Yorkshire halloumi cheese which stares at me every time I open the fridge and begs to be fried up until both crispy and squeaky.  I'd like to write up a more detailed post at some point...but time's winged chariot and all that...

More Joy

April 14th was the 12th anniversary of the date on which D and I first met so we went for a belated celebratory dinner at an old favourite: Carriages in Knaresborough.  It's a cute little wine bar-cum-bistro which serves well cooked, decent food and boasts a far better wine list than you'd expect in such a modest establishment.  It's never going to blow your mind but it's the kind of food that most people like to eat, done very well.  I must admit, I ordered scallops and goats' cheese out of curiosity, assuming that it would not quite work, but a delicate touch with the soft, salty cheese mousse actually enhanced the sweetness of the scallops, and showed a real ability to balance ingredients.  They don't have a website but they do have a Facebook page that you can view here for further info.

More Woe

D is continuing to follow the Dukan diet, albeit with a weekend break, and his results continue to be impressive.  My Weight Watching has fallen apart a little bit this week, but I should squeak an STS, having lost a further 0.6 lbs last week.  3.6 lbs in three weeks may not be incredible going, but it's not bad considering that my heart has not really been in it.

Home cooking is a little joyless at the moment; most nights D tucks in to his pile of protein and I add a side of vegetables and whingeing.  We are already looking to recover our cooking mojo in the month of May, and hopefully, I'll get some recipes posted up to the blog - they've been sadly lacking recently.

The next couple of weeks will probably continue to be quiet on the WWF front but I will, at least, try and have another good crack at the Smart Points in the coming week and report back on any progress.

Good Food Spring Show - final reminder!

Forget my grumps, forget the fact that the weather is horrible and that Spring appears to have Sprung off - this weekend the Good Food Spring Show hits Harrogate! 

See how excited the Minx is!

I'll be there, sniffing around like an overfed truffle pig, but, more importantly, a plethora of fantastic local Yorkshire producers will also be there selling their wares.  AND there will be sleb chefs to amaze with their cooking prowess. 

If you do decide to indulge in some tickets, be sure to use the code BL20 for a cheeky discount (20% off Adult / Over 65s ticket only.  Not valid on VIP or with any other offer.)

For further details check out the website, and I hope to see you there.  Well, you won't know that it is me and I won't know that it is you, but I shall smile inanely at anyone who catches my eye - and that's a promise.

Expect pictures of the spoils next week...

Meal planning Monday - and a blog giveaway!

After yesterday's grumpy post, today I will try to be slightly more cheerful.  After all, it's a brand new week.  And, excitingly, on Friday I will be paying a visit to the Spring Good Food Show over in Harrogate.

If anyone out there is in the vague vicinity of Harrogate this weekend and wants to come along then I have the power to make that happen!  The very kind people at the show have offered readers of this blog a pair of complimentary tickets for either Friday 8th or Sunday 10th April.

I thought about doing one of those Rafflecopter thingies that makes everyone follow me on Twitter and post a comment and generally be nice to me.  Which would be pleasant, but I suspect my technological skills are simply not up to it.  So if you fancy coming along just drop me an email at thewwfoodie@email.com and let me know your name and the day on which you would like to go by noon on Thursday.  If I get more than one email I shall be incredibly excited and shall draw a name from a hat.  Or get Minx to decide.

On to the more mundane business of meal planning, and D is still Dukan-ing so protein features pretty heavily in the early part of the week.  Then on Friday, we're off to the show followed by a curry with my in-laws to celebrate Pa-in-law's 70th birthday.  Saturday I'm keeping free as hopefully I will have oodles of show produce to scoff.  In very small, WW friendly, amounts of course.

Monday - Dukan friendly meatloaf (with salad and cheese for me)
Tuesday - Gammon and fried eggs (him) / roast potatoes (me)
Wednesday - Dukan friendly meatloaf (part deux) (with mash and creamy mushrooms for me)
Thursday - Smoked salmon and scrambled eggs
Friday - out
Saturday - post show spoils
Sunday - Sort of Sunday roast: chicken, carrot and swede mash, creamy leeks, garlic roasted broccoli

Have a good week, folks!

Cooking with Yorkshire rapeseed oil

The latest product that I've been lucky enough to try as part of my ongoing quest to be the BBC Good Food Show's most annoyingly enthusiastic blogger was some fabulously garlicky rapeseed oil. Yorkshire Rapeseed Oil is produced over in North Yorkshire not far from my old stomping ground of York and, to be honest, was an easy sell. D and I always tend to use rapeseed oil as our house standard not just because it is a local thang but also because we love the flavour - light, very slightly grassy, very slightly nutty, it is great on its own and perfect for cooking. Yorkshire Rapeseed Oil for the win.

I must admit that, in the past, I've thought the idea of flavoured oils slightly gimmicky but this garlic oil may well have started to convert me. The problem with garlic is that it is very, very easy to burn - adding a subtle garlic hit through oil instead is genius. I used it to roast tomatoes and aubergine earlier this week and was very pleased with the results.

Along with the oil itself, I received a book whose title I have shamelessly poached for this post which made for very interesting reading, not least because the number of cake and pudding recipes in there really emphasised the versatility of rapeseed oil. I do have a tendency to reach for butter when I'm baking but I'd definitely be up for using oil as an alternative. From a health point of view I've completely lost track of where we are in the whole good fat, bad fat, three bags full fat debate, I'm mainly interested in using the best tools for the job. If oil makes a good cake or a good scone then, fine, I'm on it.

Dipping my toe in these waters, I knocked up a batch of cheese and garlic oatcakes using the garlic oil. The results made me wonder why I ever buy oatcakes. Give them a go - maybe with different flavoured oils (my book tells me that Yorkshire Rapeseed oil also make herby oil, peppery oil and spicy oil - the tinkers) or different cheese or (sob!) no cheese.

Ingredients

120g oatmeal
25g mature cheddar, finely grated
Tbsp garlic rapeseed oil
Up to 50ml freshly boiled water

Makes 8-10 oatcakes

Top cook tip! Don't have any oatmeal to hand? Just do as I did and blitz any oats you have knocking around the cupboard (I used a 50:50 blend of jumbo rolled oats and steel pin cut oats).

Preheat the oven to 160 and line a baking sheet with parchment.

Place your oatmeal, or blitzed oats, into a large bowl with the finely grated cheddar, plenty of black pepper and a pinch of salt, and toss together lightly.

Pour in the oil and, preferably using your hand in a sort of claw shape, gradually combine with the dry ingredients. Add the water a drop at a time until the mixture comes together into a soft dough.

For shaping these babies, I found the easiest thing was to take a small piece of dough, form into a ball and press flat between my two palms. The result is somewhat more rustic than the picture in the book but it worked and was amusing to do.

Bake the oatcakes for 20 mins or so until firm and golden and beginning to brown at the edges. It's advisable to flip them halfway through cooking to ensure an even bake.

Scoff. Preferably with additional cheese.

Thank you, Yorkshire Rapeseed Oil!

The BBC Good Food Spring Show - more news!

The sun is shining today and there is definitely more than a touch of Spring in the air so I can officially start to get even more excited about the forthcoming Good Food show. And what could be more exciting than a whole host of amazing producers from the good county of Yorkshire trying to sell us all food.

Now confirmed as having stalls are:

York & Dulgent fudge - prizes for the clever reader who manages to guess a) where they are based and b) what they make. I love fudge and am intrigued by some of the flavours mentioned on the website.  Raspberry and prosecco are two of my favourite things and united in the medium of fudge - this I need to try.  I'm rather taken with the notion of limoncello fudge as well.

Amos and Tom's popcorn - now, oooooh! I do love popcorn and, as everybody knows, it is practically health food.  Even when it is sea salted caramel flavour...

Sloemotion - top marks for the punning name here. I believe that D and I have tried their sloe gin in the past to decided nods of approval but I hadn't appreciated that they do a range of other products, so will definitely be having a good sniff around their stall. Bramble whisky sounds very interesting indeed.

Patrick Macarons and Patisserie - an entirely new brand to me, but, Patrick, you had me at macaron.  And then you had me still further at "Forced rhubarb and ginger". I do like a macaron and they strike me as the kind of thing that one should never attempt to bake oneself but to leave safely in the hands of the experts. Like Patrick. It's my father in law's 70th birthday during the weekend of the show and I reckon a box of macarons would be a very classy way to mark the occasion.

Will bring you more news as I get it (that phrase makes me feel like a roving reporter!) and if you are planning to attend the show then let me know - I'll meet you by the macarons.

Cinnamon raisin spelt bread and Mercer's preserves

So if you find yourself at the BBC Good Food Spring Show (hard to say after an afternoon on the gin) in Harrogate this April one of the lovely stalls will be run by the good people of Mercer's of Yorkshire. A Yorkshire based company run by a husband and wife, they sell a lovely selection of preserves and sauces. Having been sampling their delectable lemon curd and onion marmalade (not necessarily together) this month, I can confirm that they are definitely worth checking out.

I was particularly taken with the lemon curd which is a real favourite of mine but one of those things that I never bother to make myself because other people do it so well. When we were kids, my brother wouldn't eat "jam with bits" - i.e. pretty much all jam - so we tended to get through a lot of lemon curd (and seedless raspberry which to my mind now is something of a travesty). Standard Saturday breakfast was baguette slathered with butter and curd and very lovely it was too.

Given my recently discovered mania for bread making, I decided to bake a loaf which would work with both of these products. Spelt flour is slightly harder to work with than the standard stuff but it yields a gorgeous, nutty tasting loaf with a slightly cakey texture that toasts well. I would recommend spreading thickly with soft goats' cheese before dolloping on the onion marmalade - the cinnamon and raisin combo really complements the salt / sweet / sour flavour profile. Equally, just spread thickly with curd and perhaps a little creme fraiche, it is utterly delectable.

Ingredients

250g wholemeal spelt flour (if you can't find it in your local supermarket, Holland and Barratt or similar health food stores stock it)
Tsp salt
Tsp fast acting yeast
Tsp sugar
Tsp ground cinnamon
30g raisins
Tbsp vegetable oil (I like rapeseed)
200ml cool water (you may not use all of it)

This is a sticky dough, so best made in a stand mixer with dough hook attachment. If you make it by hand, prepare to get messy.

Tip your flour, raisins, cinnamon and sugar into the mixing bowl. Add the salt to one side of the mixture and the yeast to the other so they're not touching. I don't know the specific reason for this, but Paul "Silver Fox" Hollywood tells me that never the twain shall meet and I believe him.

Set the mixer on to its lowest setting and pour in the oil and then gradually add the water. You'll need somewhere between 150ml and the free amount - enough for the mixture to come together in a shaggy dough. Once it has formed a rough ball, ratchet up the mixer and let it do its thang for about 5 minutes. The dough will be slightly sticky, but elastic.

Transfer to an oiled bowl, cover and prove for an hour.

Grease or line a loaf tin and tip in the proved dough. Give it a second prove for twenty five minutes. It's obviously working on a very hard theorem. While this second prove is going ahead, preheat the oven to 200.

Bake for around 30 mins, or until the internal temperature has reached around 200 degrees. Allow to cool slightly before falling on it armed with butter knife and topping of choice.

Look!

The BBC Good Food Spring Blogging Community website is now live! It's here! There's me!

I'll be sharing a recipe with you this weekend which works beyootifully with a couple of the lovely Yorkshire preserves that I received to try this month so be sure and keep you eyes peeled (peeled I tell you!) for that. And do check out all the other blogs on the list (but remember that I'm your favourite...)

BBC Good Food - coming to Harrogate!

I've been meaning to go the Good Food show for yonks but never quite got around to it.  Which is odd because it's basically an opportunity to go and eat food and talk about food and buy food which are three of my favourite things to do.

The Spring show is coming to Harrogate this April, for the third year running.  And 2016 will finally be the year that I break my duck and go along, partly because I've been asked to join the BBC Good Food Show Blogging Community.  Look at all those capital letters!  And I have a shiny badge down at the bottom of the page which makes it all official and suchlike.

Such things make me tremendously happy.

Basically, what this means is that for the next three months, I am going to write increasingly over excited articles about the show (Michel Roux Jr is attending!  And Paul "Silver Fox" Hollywood!  And Tom Kerridge!  And I'm going to spend so much money on local gins and chutneys that I will spend the the rest of the month eating beans on toast!)  You, dearest reader, will sigh and roll your eyes and put up with them because I'm endearing really, and I post cute cat pictures.  Then afterwards I shall write a breathless account of all my adventures, complete with dodgy photography and you shall sigh a bit more and hope that no one else in the history of PR approaches me to do anything.

Here are the essential deets: the show is taking place between the 8th and 10th of April at the Harrogate International Centre and it is going to be very exciting indeed.  I shall share more information with you as the weeks go by but the website is here if you just can't wait.  The tickets are on sale now and if you're anywhere near Harrogate in April then come along!  Watch in awe at my capacity for sample sized bites of food!  Buy gin!  And cake!  Possibly appear in aforementioned dodgy photography!  Ticket prices start from £13.50 but because I love my lovely readers I have a 20% off ticket code - just enter BL20 at the checkout (please note that this applies to adult and over 65 tickets only and is not valid on VIP or with any other offer.  Terms and conditions, people!)

It's going to be fun, folks - see how excited Minx is!

Be quiet.  I'm